True Blood: Bros Before Vampire Hos?

by Aubrey Sitterson

Plot and character development-wise, the fourth season of HBO’s True Blood has been more than a little disappointing. Fortunately, even at its weakest, True Blood retains one of its most interesting aspects: The way it uses the hyper-reality of supernatural creatures to explore human relationships.

In previous weeks we’ve examined the underlying symbolism of the show’s witches, Eric’s amnesia and more, but this week we’ll be looking at the love triangle between Hoyt, Jessica and Jason.

Following the werepanther-rape storyline that ended up going exactly nowhere, Jason Stackhouse was thrust into the middle of his friend Hoyt’s deteriorating relationship with vampire Jessica. With Jessica reeling from the collapse of her first relationship not only as a vampire, but ever, she was looking for someone, anyone, to take the place of Hoyt, as evidenced by her dalliance with an anonymous young fangbanger at Fangtasia.

Meanwhile, Jason was both physically and emotionally damaged from his experiences in Hotshot, making him an easy target for Jessica to swoop in on. To help Jason heal from his werepanther-related wounds, Jessica let him drink her blood. Significantly, this is something that Jessica’s boyfriend Hoyt refused to do, which led to a fight that ultimately resulted in the crumbling of their relationship.

As established in the world of True Blood, drinking a vampire’s blood not only heals a human and gives them a unique high, but also causes the drinker to develop feelings for the vamp. All this, combined with the fact that both Jason and Jessica were wounded, extremely attractive “people,” resulted in the two finally hooking up at the end of the last episode.

This week, however, saw the two dealing the fallout that comes when a guy sleeps with his best friend’s ex-girlfriend. The scene plays out how you would expect it to, with Jason horrified and filled with regret, while Jessica fails to see how they’ve done anything wrong. What elevates their interaction from simple cliché though, is how Jason requests that they deal with the issue.

In real life, two people in Jason and Jessica’s position would likely just agree to never speak of their tryst ever again, but in Bon Temps, Louisiana, there’s another option: Glamouring. Jason wants Jessica to glamour him into forgetting that they ever had sex so that he can face Hoyt without secrets. Jessica, of course, takes offense to this as a sign that Jason is ashamed of what she sees as a burgeoning relationship, and as a result, storms off to go eat someone.

Aside from Jason’s failure to abide by the “Bros Before Hos” doctrine, what makes this aspect of the show really interesting is what the two didn’t do during their truck bed lovemaking: Bloodsucking. For vampires, bloodsucking exists as an activity that gives both nourishment and sexual satisfaction, and as Jessica did not suck Jason’s blood, she finds herself unfulfilled afterward, hungry for blood as well as love. When used properly, Jessica, as a young, growing female vampire, can be one of the show’s most interesting and complex characters.

What do you think about Jason hooking up with Jessica? Did they do anything wrong? Was Jason out of line asking for Jessica to glamour the memory away from him? Tell us in the comments below, then make sure to watch True Blood on HBO this Sunday at 9pm, and check back here for more discussion on Monday.